


too much blush, not enough love

by themundaneweirdo



Series: you make me feel (like i’m living a teenage dream) [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Betaed, Billy Being A Cutie Pa-Tootie, Billy Being Lowkey Jealous, Brother/Sister Incest, Dates, F/M, Hugs, I Can’t Stop Writing This Ship, Kisses, Makeup, Max Being A Strong Independant Girl, Secret Relationship, Sibling Incest, Step-Sibling Incest, movies - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-18 00:20:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16106813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themundaneweirdo/pseuds/themundaneweirdo
Summary: Max has a date.





	too much blush, not enough love

**Author's Note:**

> Okaaay. 
> 
> After completing my other Billy/Max series, I decided to write a more fun and upbeat series. I do enjoy writing dark and sad fics, but I think these two deserve another AU to exsit in.

Max has a date tonight. 

Billy doesn’t know if he’d call it a date, it’s just a stupid overhyped movie with the Sinclair kid, probably a night that she’ll forget in a week or two. It’s not even a film worth spending money on, it’s just a stupid Corey Feldman movie, The Goonies. The commercials on tv look ridiculous, like something that any thirteen year old would go see just because it has a band of idiot kids in it doing heroic shit. No, not even heroic, just a few kid movie stars making out like they’re big shots when half of them will be drug heads in a few years. 

Plus, Max doesn’t even like those stupid coming of age movies. Is it even a coming of age movie? Billy doesn’t know, and he frankly doesn’t care, either. He just knows his stepsister will be sorely disappointed if she thinks the film is going to be life changing or is supposed to make her into a new girl. It’s just a dumb movie that Sinclair wants to take to her to because he thinks he can make her happy. 

As if he could make Max happy beyond being close friends. Sure, when they first moved there, she was all about him after the whole thing with Steve Harrington and Chief Hopper's daughter, which Billy still doesn’t know what the Hell happened that night because he was blinded with rage for half of it. But, now that schools beginning to whip her ass and she’s settled back into her wannabe skateboarder phase, she’s not had the time to even glance at Lucas. The redhead’s had so much homework and projects to do that it's kind of embarrassing how much effort he’s put in to just see her and she still hasn’t noticed.

It’s obvious that whatever little crush Max had on him is fading very quickly, and Billy gives it maybe a few more weeks before she calls it quits. She’s getting bored, not the kind of bored that Sinclair can fix with a couple of dates and candy at lunch. It’s the type of bored that’ll make her want to blow her brains out because if Lucas can’t keep her busy, then what will in the shithole town of Hawkins? 

Billy will probably go out after Mrs. Sinclair picks her up, sometime around six or six-thirty, and she probably won’t be home until eight or later. There’s bound to be a party somewhere, whether it be Tommy H.’s or that dude from the baseball team, and they’re always sick. Billy always gets piss drunk when he’s out with no responsibilities, and since Neil and Susan are back in California for a funeral of some distant cousin that he doesn’t care about, he can black out if he wants. 

On second thought, if their parents are out of town, Billy is probably supposed to be watching out for her. It isn’t the first time he’s been left to play caretaker for her, although he acts like he doesn’t care if she’s in trouble because if she is, it’s his ass. He doesn’t mind anymore, he’s half way through his senior year, and he still doesn’t have stable enough friends to just chill with. He’d rather be running Max everywhere these days than he would be at home with nothing to do. 

Billy tells himself that he just happens to be in a riding mood when Max asks him to take her to either the arcade, or drop her off at the Wheeler's house. Sometimes, he truly just wants to get out the house, away from Neil and Susan, and just breathe some fresh air that he can only find at the park in town. He’ll sit in his car with the windows down, music playing low, or on the swings and listen to the crickets. The rest of the town might be crappy, with a few exceptions since they have a mall now, but the park is one of few places that Billy likes. 

Max will ride out there with him at times, because she too likes to get away from the house. It’s just the two of them, alone and somewhat safe from the tense air in their house. What better time to go riding than when your stepbrother is hightailing it down a back road with Metallica roaring? 

Billy and Max get along good nowadays, so why would she rather go on a date than stay home with him and watch some old horror movies? 

“Are you sure you’re even still going? It’s starting to rain, and I doubt Mrs. Sinclair is going to drive half way across town to pick you up.”

Max rolls her eyes as she rummages through her closet, flipping through different sweaters and pairs of jeans. She’s been looking for something somewhat nice to wear for almost half an hour, and Billy doesn’t understand why. She’s never dressed up for any of her previous dates with Lucas, she’s always wore her usual tomboy get up, so why look clean and girly now? 

“No-one’s called to cancel, so I’m assuming we’re still going,” she says, pulling a article of clothing from her closet before shutting the door. It’s the sweater she got for her fourteenth birthday, and the navy blue fabric looks itchy but is surprisingly soft. 

Billy sags against her door frame, his arms crossing, and says, “I don’t see why you can’t just stay home tonight. We can rent some stupid scary movies, and I’ll even let you drink if you want.” 

“It sounds like you’re trying to seduce me, Billy.” 

He grins. “Maybe I am.” 

They get along so good nowadays because they kind of date. Kind of being the key word, because it’s not exactly legal for an eighteen year old to date a fourteen year old, especially when it’s his stepsister. It sounds bad, Billy knows how it sounds and how it must look, but it’s not like he’s forcing her to be with him. Max kissed him on one of those nights that they went riding, Billy didn’t have it in him to stop her, and they’ve been that way since. 

It’s been almost four months, and while she still lets Lucas think they’re dating, she doesn’t allow him to kiss her or even hold her hand half the time. If it was up to Billy, Max would’ve been done with him the moment she decided she wanted to be with her stepbrother. She isn’t dating Lucas, she’s just keeping up an act so people don’t get suspicious about the amount of time she’s suddenly began to spend with Billy. It’s more so to keep people off of his ass, because if they were to be caught, he would be the one thrown in jail. 

And, just because they’re together doesn’t mean that they do everything that consists of a couple. The only things they’ve done relationship wise is occasionally share a brief kiss, or hold each other’s hand in the comfort of Billy’s car. Even doing that is risky, because Billy never knows when one of her little friends are going to come up beside his car, or if Tommy H. will try to hitch a ride. It’s more about the comfort of knowing that they’re there for each other, that they’re not alone anymore. 

Not that Billy has a problem with kisses or holding hands, he enjoys it and tries not to do it unless they’re home alone, but he doesn’t want it seem like Max has to do it just because they’re together now. She could decide to end whatever their relationship is, and he wouldn’t be able to stop her because it’s her decision. He isn’t going to make her stay with him if that’s not what she wants, because while it’s only been a few months, Billy’s grown attached to her. He thinks it would kill him if she left him. 

He’s got to get a better grip on himself. 

Max laughs and tugs the sweater off the hanger, throws it on her bed next to her jeans. She grabs the bottom of her shirt to pull it off, but stops as she exposes her belly. She twirls her finger. “Turn around.”

Billy shakes his head, but does as he’s told. “You act like I’ve never seen you in a bra.” 

“That was different.”

Hell yeah, it was different. Their first week in Hawkins and he walks in on her changing. How was he supposed to know she was half naked with her shirt barely around her neck? 

“Can I look now?,” he asks, listening as he hears the stretch of cotton and the snag of a zipper.

“Yeah.” 

He turns to see her in the navy sweater and loose jeans, her feet still bare on the hardwood floor. Billy cannot lie, she looks adorable in her girly get up, and he thinks that navy is definitely her color. It fits her better than that ugly green tracksuit jacket she wears. She did a little spin with her arms held out, her hair flaring out around her. 

“How do I look?”

“Looking good, little lady,” he grinned.

Max returns the grin, and then picks up her discarded clothes from the floor. She throws them in the clothes hamper in the corner of her room, and turns to her dresser before shuffling through the various items she has on top of it. Billy doesn’t understand why she hoards useless items, such as papers from school and stupid knick knacks from the arcade that Lucas has given her. It pisses him off that she keeps them, but he doesn’t tell her. 

“Can I use your mirror in your room?,” she asks, a small hand bag in her hands. 

“What for?”

She frowns. “So I can do my makeup?”

“Only if I can get a front row seat,” Billy says smoothly, allowing his grin to grow toothy as she blushes. 

He can’t find the time to comment that she usually hates makeup, and complains about it when Susan forces her to wear it. When she does feel like powdering her face, all she puts on is the basics that she was taught by a few girls at school; powder, blush, a little lipgloss, and mascara. Billy knows, he’s the one who has taken her to get these products, and he’s helped her fumble her way through the cosmetic aisle. It’s something he’ll never forget, especially considering how Max blushed when he had to flirt with the counter girl to get her to help them. 

With a gentle flop, the redhead sets her bag on Billy’s makeshift vanity, unzipping it and rummaging through the contents. He sits on his bed, leaning back against the wall, and watches as she applies powder to her face with a weird cotton puff thing, dulling the little oil on her skin. It matches her almost perfectly, tones down the redness in her cheeks so Billy can’t see it from afar, but he’s sure that up close he could make it out. She turns her face a little side to side before nodding, satisfied with her work. 

Max picks up her blush next, and a small brush that Billy’s pretty sure she stole from Susan, and applies a liberal amount to her cheeks. He never understands why she puts on a light powder to cover her imperfections, such as the redness in her face, but then just puts rogue over it. It’s contradictory, and makeup already confuses him, but he doesn’t disturb her. If she seems fit to put cosmetics on her face, then he can’t say otherwise because he sees her different from how she sees herself. 

He’ll never understand how Max can see herself as anything but perfect. He gets that she’s insecure, especially when she’s a tomboy in a world full of girly girls, and she probably feels the need to try and fit it. Sure, most girls her age are covering their faces with liquid makeup and outrageous eyeshadows on their eyelids, not to mention the heavy blush, but Max doesn’t need that. He bets half the girls she goes to school with wishes they had her skin and natural beauty while they spend God knows how much to achieve it. They can forget about trying to copy her eyes and eyelashes, they’re one of a kind and Billy doubts he’ll ever see someone as beautiful as Max. 

“Billy?”

He shakes his head, interrupting his wandering mind, and looks at Max expectantly. She already has mascara on her lashes, and she’s holding two tubes of gloss out in her hand. 

“Which one?,” she asks. 

Billy glances at the tubes, one clear and the other a hot pink. The pink certainly won’t do, it’ll make Max look like trash, and she’s far from that. But, if she puts on the clear gloss, he doesn’t know if he’d let her out of the house looking so sinfully enticing. Neither of them will do. 

He reaches out and brushes her bottom lip with his thumb and lowly says, “You don’t need any.” 

Max’s eyes lower until her lashes brush her cheek, and she absently leans into his palm. Her cheek is warm underneath the powder, still soft and smooth, and he feels how she’s basically melted into his hand. She’s relaxed, loose and just in reach of his hold, and he could reach out and pull her in if he wants. Feel the warmth under her sweater, the softness of the material, smell the sweet scent she emits. He could just hold her. 

Billy really doesn’t want her to go out tonight. He understands it’s about keeping up appearances, they’re trying to keep themselves safe, but God, he just wants her to stay. They can just lounge on the couch and watch old tapes, eat junk food, and just enjoy each other’s company while they can. Once Neil and Susan get home, they’ll be forced to act like siblings again. He’s trying to soak it all up while he can. 

While Billy thought he was being bold, he’s caught off guard as Max surges forward and presses her lips to his. She drops the lip gloss tubes on the bed beside him, wraps her arms around his neck, and her sweet kiss suddenly becomes hungry. He can’t push her away because for one, he doesn’t want to, and for two, he won’t be able to kiss her like this for a while. Billy can’t stop himself when his arms come up and wrap around her waist, keeping her pressed against him, because truthfully, she’s his, and he’s hers. 

All too soon, she pulls away. Her hands go to his shirt collar, keeping him close and still at the same time, and she rests her forehead on his. His arms never leave her waist. 

“I’m sorry,” she says, quiet and shy. 

“For what?”

Max smiles lazily, her thumbs brushing over his neck. “I know you really want me to stay home tonight, because we never get time like this.”

“Max...,” Billy sighs, his hold on her faltering a little.

“But,” she says, one hand coming up to card through the dark blonde curls, “If I get home early enough, we can watch old scary movies and eat junk if that’s what you want.”

Billy grins, looking straight into her eyes, before biting his lip. It makes him happy that’s she’s trying to compromise, even though she doesn’t need to, but the effort is what counts. He lets go of her and stands off his bed, laughing as she refuses to let go of his neck. He wraps his arms back around her and spins her around with little effort, his muscles being more than enough to pick her up, and it earns a giggle from Max. It sounds like angels singing. 

“Deal,” he says, setting her back on her feet, her hair whipping around her. He kisses her once more before the sound of a car horn echoes from outside. 

Max is quick to collect her shoes and cash they Susan left for her, and is out the door with a small wave. Whiles she’s hurrying to pile into Mrs. Sinclair’s car, in the back seat with Lucas, Billy stands out on the porch and tries his damndest to look menacing, because he’s got to keep up his bad boy ego. Even if that means putting fear in the heart of Lucas Sinclair. 

As they speed off, his mean glare melts to a soft grin, and he goes inside with his head full of Max’s promises of a movie night. 

It’s a date.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! 
> 
> I take prompts/suggestions for upcoming parts because this is just going to a cute little series about Billy and Max being cuties.
> 
> Comments are my fuel! Fill me up!
> 
> (no updates until I have feedback! I love hearing from you guys!)


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